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"Jerry Remy doesn't have a racist bone in his body," outspoken former Red Sox ace Curt Schilling said in defense of Jerry Remy, who apologized for his comments about translators regarding mound visits.

(Published Wednesday, June 7, 2017)

Boston Red Sox announcer Jerry Remy apologized Wednesday for his on-air remarks a night earlier that pitchers such as Yankees star Masahiro Tanaka shouldn't be allowed to have translators on the mound.

"I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my comments during the telecast last night," Remy tweeted.

During the NESN broadcast of the Boston-New York game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, Remy said pitchers such as the Japanese-born Tanaka should "learn baseball language."

His comments quickly drew sharp criticism on social media, with some saying there isn't one universal language for baseball.

The Red Sox and NESN released statements Wednesday distancing themselves from Remy's remarks.

"NESN does not agree with any such views expressed by Jerry Remy and we know from talking to Jerry that he regrets making them. The network sincerely apologizes to anyone who was offended by Jerry's comments," NESN said.

Said the Red Sox: "We do not share the views expressed by Jerry Remy during last night's broadcast."

Remy has been a popular Red Sox television analyst since 1988. He was a Boston infielder for seven seasons and is a member of the team's Hall of Fame.

In 2013, Major League Baseball adopted a rule that permitted interpreters to join mound conferences. That same season, Red Sox relievers Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa each used translators on the team's run to the World Series championship.

Remy's comments Tuesday night came hours after Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, a longtime Phillies third baseman, said in a radio interview that Philadelphia outfielder Odubel Herrera's language barrier "would make it difficult" for him to be a team leader. Herrera is from Venezuela and conducts his interviews with English-speaking media in Spanish, through a translator.

Herrera said after the Phillies' game in Atlanta that Schmidt had called him to apologize for his remarks.

In the fourth inning of the Red Sox-Yankees game, Tanaka was visited on the mound by Japanese translator Shingo Horie and pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

"I don't think that should be legal," Remy said at the time, telling play-by-play man Dave O'Brien, "I really don't.

"Learn baseball language. You know, learn, it's pretty simple. You break it down pretty easy between pitching coach and pitcher after a long period of time," Remy said.

O'Brien answered: "I would say that probably, you know, they're concerned about nuance being lost in some of these conversations."

As he left the broadcast booth after Boston's 5-4 win, Remy said he had nothing more to say on the subject.